Donations flood in to UN for Niger famine

The UN has received more donations to fund its humanitarian work in the drought-hit west African country of Niger in the last 10 days than it did in the previous 10 months, it said today.

"We warned the world ... that Niger was the biggest and most uncontrollable of our developing humanitarian emergencies," said the UN's humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland. "But it took the images of children dying to make the world wake up. We should not have had so many children dying in Niger."

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said US$2.8m (£1.6m) has been received this week. More money came in last week as well, and the total for the appeal, which was launched two months ago, now stands at US$6.6m, OCHA said.

The UN also has received pledges for more than US$10m in additional donations, the agency said.

"I am hopeful that we will get most of what we appealed for," Mr Egeland said. "I think that the world can afford it."

After receiving little response to its November donation request, the UN made a second appeal in March for US$16m but only received about US$1m. The latest appeal for US$30m was made on May 25, but donations picked up only in recent days - only after news stories on Niger that followed the G8 summit in Gleneagles and the Live8 concerts, Mr Egeland said.

Landlocked Niger, ranked the second least developed country in the world, was devastated last year by an invasion of locusts and then by a drought that lasted until earlier this month.

Some 3.5 million people, about a quarter of Niger's population, are facing hunger of "catastrophic proportions", OCHA said.

Also today, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal for 18m Swiss francs (£8.1m) to help efforts to avert widespread starvation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania as well as Niger.

"We have a window of opportunity to avert a major catastrophe," said the coordinator of the federation's relief operation, Langdon Greenhalgh.

The British Red Cross hopes to raise a £500,000 contribution towards the fund's total.

"People in countries like Niger have endured chronic poverty for many years," said west Africa specialist Paul Jenkins. "Before this current crisis, 40% of children were malnourished and Niger had the second highest global mortality rate amongst children under five. The current acute food shortages are making a dire situation unbearable. We must act now to save lives."